Prophetic Vigilance and the Gifts of the Spirit

A few weeks ago, if you recall, on a Wednesday night, I kind of did a quick snapshot overview of the prophecies of Ezekiel 38 and 39, which predict a movement of nations, a coalition of nations in the last days headed by Russia coming down to Israel to get something very valuable. [00:00:17]

But we are in a situation where that prophecy has never been closer to a manifestation. It was written 2,600 years ago. We're at least in a prophetic window that makes all that possible that hitherto has not been possible. [00:00:56]

And though I never want to look at tragedy like this simply from an academic or theological viewpoint or an outsider's viewpoint, when things like this happen, believers naturally ask why and what does this mean? And not that we can always answer the question, what does this mean? [00:01:15]

But we do keep our eyes on it, and we do examine the Scripture in light of what we see, and our lens is always a scriptural lens. We don't interpret Scripture based on current events. We interpret it based on the events that we see. We interpret current events based on Scripture. [00:01:34]

And I never want to say that we're seeing that happen now, because because you never know. In the fog of war, a lot of things change. [00:00:47]

So we're always looking and thinking, what does this mean? How does it play out? And of course, we don't know, and we get involved, and we alleviate suffering, and we do what we can in the midst of it. However, from that viewpoint, once again, just to add a little bit to that, something happened today that I thought you should know about, and that is the president of Israel, not the prime minister Naftali Bennett, the president, Isaac Herzog, flew to Turkey to meet with the head of Turkey, Erdogan, and to strike the deal of deals, to make a deal with Turkey, since so much oil has been purchased and dependence upon Russia has been used by nations in Europe. Up to this point, they've gotten their fuel, their oil, etc. from Russia. Israel has struck a deal to supply, to be the new supplier of Europe by giving a pipeline, since Israel has struck a deal to supply, to be the new supplier of Europe by giving a pipeline, since Israel [00:01:52]

has discovered massive reserves of gas and oil off its coast, and they have undersea wells, and they have struck a deal today. They're talking about the deal of bringing a pipeline to feed Europe that would go through Turkey. Now, that just adds an interesting complexion to the prophecies of Ezekiel 38 and 39, especially when Israel has something that valuable that would eventually attract someone to go in and wage a war against it. Again, not making any wagers or saying this is it, but I do remember what Jesus said, that when these things begin to take place, lift up your eyes, look up, for your redemption draws near. So it's just, it's something we look at and go, very interesting. [00:03:01]

Father, thank you for the Word of God. Thank you for the testimony of Scripture. Thank you for Paul the Apostle, moved and inspired by the Holy Spirit to write this letter that became part of Holy Writ. And we hold to it and we model ourselves and our practices after the entire body of Scripture, hopefully, in which we pray that you would add to our understanding and the balance of our understanding and our practice, especially within the church, that we might exercise the gifts you have given us with the love and unity in the Spirit that would consider everyone involved. [00:06:14]

There's a key word I want you to have and know and have under your belt as we go through spiritual gifts. It's the word balance. When it comes to this area especially, we should be balanced. And I say that because I think, my opinion is, I feel that many churches, many movements are not all that balanced. [00:12:31]

I think there's truth in every movement of Orthodox Christianity, every basic denomination that is Orthodox in its beliefs. There's truth, but I think that in many of them, there is a little bit of imbalance. [00:12:58]

So when it comes to gifts of the Spirit, there are extremes. And there are people who want to put you in one of those extremes. Kind of move you there instead of letting you keep balance. It's important but hard to maintain balance. [00:13:18]

But balance is so important. If you play a sport, they'll tell you you need to work on your balance. If you want to get this golf swing right, you're not hitting it like a baseball bat, hitting a baseball. You've got to have a certain rhythm and a certain balance and a certain muscle memory. So balance is important in everything. [00:13:36]